Heaters.... how many / controllers.

[CayeCaulker]

I am looking at heaters for a 150g show.....
Titanium heaters are the way to go and are the style I used in the past. Each heater with it's own controller. Plan on using three so if one gets stuck on it's not the end of the world, at least not for a while. I want to be able to protect my system from my home as well as itself. I also want to control them with their own controller and backed up by a apex unit. So if one gets stuck on the apex can shut it down anyway.

Do they have titanium heaters controllers that have persistent temperature settings in the event of power loss? So when the Apex system cuts the power it will retain its setting?
Should I simply rely on the Apex and forget about seperate controllers?

I would appreciate thoughts and ideas from the forum.

Thanks
Randall

 

[AJsReef]

I run dual heaters on my 100G, I plugged them into an Inkbird which is further controlled by my Apex.

Burned a few Energy Bars out in the past so try to put the bulk of the cycles on the cheaper Inkbird

 

[jda]

Look Ranco to control - industrial grade, can handle the wattage of multiple high watt heaters and are much more reliable than Apex or InkBird. You can save your energy bar slots for other things.

I use Eheim which have a manual thermostat - of course they stay set. I imagine that ones with digital vary from brand to brand. I set the heaters about 79. Ranco at 78. Heaters come on when the ranco comes on - they would only go off if the Ranco stuck on, which I have literally never heard of every happening, even in industrial settings, which is why they are so trusted.

I use Eheims because they are cheap (relatively), pretty reliable and honestly just better than anything else out there. They do have failures and I will lose one every once in a while - they just stop heating. This is just part of the game. I buy them by the 6x case for about $180 since I have so many tanks and I like to have extras on hand. I should have probably bought a in-line heater a long time ago, but I never did.

I would never rely on just one temp probe. The Apex one is hobby grade, even the upgraded one, and they do fail and drift. Always have a second thermostat for heat so that both have to fail - this is far more unlikely.

This is totally off topic, but pick up a thermometer with mercury in it so that you can always double check your probes and controllers and stuff. This is a good, cheap tool to have in your toolbox.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Look Ranco to control - industrial grade, can handle the wattage of multiple high watt heaters and are much more reliable than Apex or InkBird. You can save your energy bar slots for other things.

I use Eheim which have a manual thermostat - of course they stay set. I imagine that ones with digital vary from brand to brand. I set the heaters about 79. Ranco at 78. Heaters come on when the ranco comes on - they would only go off if the Ranco stuck on, which I have literally never heard of every happening, even in industrial settings, which is why they are so trusted.

I use Eheims because they are cheap (relatively), pretty reliable and honestly just better than anything else out there. They do have failures and I will lose one every once in a while - they just stop heating. This is just part of the game. I buy them by the 6x case for about $180 since I have so many tanks and I like to have extras on hand. I should have probably bought a in-line heater a long time ago, but I never did.

I would never rely on just one temp probe. The Apex one is hobby grade, even the upgraded one, and they do fail and drift. Always have a second thermostat for heat so that both have to fail - this is far more unlikely.

This is totally off topic, but pick up a thermometer with mercury in it so that you can always double check your probes and controllers and stuff. This is a good, cheap tool to have in your toolbox.

I will add to this with Eheims and a mercury thermometer.

Eheims can be calibrated to ensure that the dial is exactly what the heater heats to.

Just take a few minutes and a 5 gallon bucket of water. I believe BRS has a video on how to do this.

I do this and then setup my heaters exactly as @jda mentioned.

 

[jdiefenbaugh]

I use a bayite plugged into an apex, that controls my heat exchanger. It can heat the tank really quickly, and these 2 have worked perfectly for me.

 

[ariellemermaid]

I would assume all controllers have persistent settings, otherwise they’d be pretty useless. Definitely inkbirds. For my new build I went with Finnex metal heaters that each came with their own controller. I haven’t plugged them in yet but I’d be pretty upset if the settings aren’t persistent. I think controller + apex back up is plenty of redundancy.

 

[FiddlersReef]

Look Ranco to control - industrial grade, can handle the wattage of multiple high watt heaters and are much more reliable than Apex or InkBird. You can save your energy bar slots for other things.

Those look really nice. This one is tempting...

 

[FiddlersReef]

I would assume all controllers have persistent settings, otherwise they’d be pretty useless. Definitely inkbirds. For my new build I went with Finnex metal heaters that each came with their own controller. I haven’t plugged them in yet but I’d be pretty upset if the settings aren’t persistent. I think controller + apex back up is plenty of redundancy.

I have the Finnex heater and haven't had a problem with it losing it's setting.